YUCAY, SACRED VALLEY OF THE INCAS, CUSCO-PERU:<\/p>\n
\u00a0I woke up more rested this morning and a bit anxious as I lay in bed for a while. I couldn\u2019t understand the feelings of emptiness I was experiencing.<\/p>\n
I finished reading \u2018The Alchemist\u2019, by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho; the story of a Spanish shepherd boy who had a dream of finding a treasure at the pyramids of Egypt. A gypsy woman and a king advised him to pursue it in order \u201cto realize one\u2019s destiny\u2019s only obligation\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u00a0What resonated for me in the final chapter:\u00a0 \u201cThe boy turned to the hand that wrote all. As he did so, he sensed that the universe had fallen silent, and he decided not to speak.\u00a0 <\/em>A current of love rushed from his heart, and the boy began to pray. It was a prayer that he had never said before, because it was a prayer without words or pleas.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0As I walked around Betty\u2019s Pashnawasy\u2019s yard, I stopped in silent prayer. I became absorbed with the activity that surrounded me: \u00a0chickens and ducks pecking for bugs, apples lying on the ground from the trees above, guinea pigs full of activity. Once I stopped to appreciate the beauty around me, my heart became more serene and peaceful.<\/p>\n \u00a0This morning I realized I did not have to react to my heart\u2019s anxiousness in a confused manner, but to be aware that the feeling of emptiness was because I was starting the day with a blank canvas that waits to be painted. I first needed to be connected to the hand that wrote all, in silent prayer without words or pleas<\/em>. My heart\u2019s brush strokes to life my canvas from the day\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n \u00a0Jose, live from the Sacred Valley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PERU UPDATE APRIL 14, 2010<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateayni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateayni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateayni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateayni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateayni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateayni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170,"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateayni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions\/170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateayni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateayni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateayni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}